You’re spinning at hundreds of miles an hour right now and it feels like sitting still. Feelings aren’t measurements.

You are moving fast enough right now to cross a county in a minute, and the sensation of it is precisely nothing. Your senses report change, not speed, which means they are built to catch bumps rather than to tell you the truth about your situation. Feelings work the same way. They are quick local readings of what just shifted, and poor instruments for judging how anything actually stands.

When a feeling makes a big claim about your whole life, treat it as one reading. Write what you feel, then write separately what you know. Compare the two lists.